Dropping Bright
When the concentration of fermentable sugars in the beer falls below a certain level, variable with the strain of yeast, the yeast cells will naturally flocculate and settle toward the bottom of the vessel in which the beer is stored; this act is known as dropping bright. The degree to which yeast flocculates is dependent on many factors, including the specific gravity of the beer, the gas pressure over the beer, the ambient temperature, and some biological properties particular to the yeast strain; some beers will never drop bright by themselves.
Some breweries make available rack bright beer, which is cask-conditioned beer that has been dropped bright at the brewery and then racked, transferred, to a new container for shipment. Rack bright beer generally costs slightly more than ordinary beer, all else being equal, but requires less preparation time and care at the point of serving; in particular, dropping bright requires that the beer be left undisturbed to settle, as jarring or shaking its container will re-suspend the yeast.
Any beer which has been dropped bright or fined will have a layer of yeast sediment at the bottom of its storage vessel.
Read more about this topic: Bright Beer
Famous quotes containing the words dropping and/or bright:
“In the range of things toddlers have to learn and endlessly review—why you can’t put bottles with certain labels in your mouth, why you have to sit on the potty, why you can’t take whatever you want in the store, why you don’t hit your friends—by the time we got to why you can’t drop your peas, well, I was dropping a few myself.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
““O what unlucky streak
Twisting inside me, made me break the line?
What was the rock my gliding childhood struck,
And what bright unreal path has led me here?””
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)